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Palmyra man believes he was target of professional car thieves

A PALMYRA teacher who woke to find two men inside his home in the early hours of Wednesday morning believed professional car thieves targeted him.

The man, who asked not to be named, was woken around 4am by the sound of his dog barking and rushed downstairs to find two men wearing balaclavas and gloves while they combed his home with low-powered torches.

“I confronted them and they ran out of the house but stopped in the driveway,” the man said.

“One picked up a brick and started threatening me while the other used the keys he had taken from inside to start opening my garage.

“They were just so brazen and well prepared; there was even a third man in a getaway car waiting out on the street.”

After an extended standoff, the thieves eventually fled in the getaway car – a Nissan Skyline or similar – after the victim was joined in the street by a nearby resident wielding a baseball bat.

The victim said the thieves appeared to be after his 2003 Subaru RX.

“They were speaking broken English,” the man said.

“They forced their way in through the front door and it wasn’t your normal burglary, they definitely knew what they wanted.

“They didn’t take anything besides the car keys, even though my wallet was right there.”

Palmyra Police Station officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Gavin Radice said it was not uncommon for thieves to break into homes in search of car keys.

“However, I’m not aware of a trend of Subarus or any other vehicle type that is being specifically targeted at present,” he said.